Alcohol sales dropped off so much in the space of four years that the Revenue Commissioners were taking in €304m less tax from the sector in 2010 than they did in 2007. That constitutes a drop of around 27 per cent.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan, responding to a question from Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle in the Dáil this week, said that while there was no way of knowing how much alcohol was sold in off-licenses compared to that sold in licensed premises, it was possible to calculate the tax levy on alcohol through the years.

In 2007, the Revenue Commissioners took €1.13 billion in the alcohol products tax. In 2008, that dropped to €1.069 billion; it dropped again in 2009 and 2010 to €968m and €826m respectively. No figures for 2011 are yet available.